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On the weekend I flew in support of a whale rescue at Farewell Spit in Golden Bay, New Zealand at the invitation of Project Jonah, a whale rescue NGO

https://www.facebook.com/projectjonah

About 60 pilot whales had stranded over night high up the beach. About 10 died or were euthanized and the surviving 50 were successfully re-floated at high tide around midday. The plan was for me to fly overhead and monitor their progress via FPV. If they headed out to sea then everybody could relax. If they headed back to the beach then we would have advance warning of where they were going and the rescuers could create a human chain to prevent them beaching again. 

As it turns out I wasn't much use, the whales beached again about 10 minutes before I got airborne. If I was half an hour earlier my UAV could have provided real time situational awareness that would have enabled the rescuers to swing into action.

Farewell Spit is a common site for whale strandings. The beach has a very gentle gradient, the distance between high tide and low tide is up to 2 km in places. The photo above was taken at low tide, a little over 1km away from the high tide mark. It's not apparent from the photo, but the whales were grounded just 100m from deep water. My contact person was the Project Jonah general manager, he told me that the proximity to the deep water would have meant a human chain could have been particularly effective at preventing them from stranding.

The wind was strong the whole time I was on site with gusts to up to 50km/hr. I flew one mission and it was the bumpiest flight I've ever done. The flight log shows it got buffeted to 60 degrees of roll (it felt like 90) as I was taking off in stabilize mode. It got buffeted to 80 degrees later in loiter mode. The plane has a normal cruise speed of 40km hr so I struggled to make headway upwind and I hit 100km/hr at one point downwind. My gimbal could tilt but not roll so the wild movement made the picture pretty unstable but the whales and rescuers were clearly visible from the air. It was live FPV only, no recording to share here unfortunately. I flew in auto mode initially and used guided mode and loiter to remain above the area the whales were. My airframe (Bormatec Maja, 2.2m wingspan) wasn't really the best airframe for the conditions. It was too slow in flight speed and too docile in maneuverability. I would say a small flying wing might be best.

I packed up my gear after my flight, then put on my wetsuit and rushed down the beach to help with the rescue effort.

The situation when I arrived was much as is shown in the photo above which shows about a quarter or third of all the whales affected. I was directed to help a group of 5 whales and I worked with three others for an hour or so keeping them covered (the sheets blew off in the wind), keeping them wet and cool, and digging trenches by hand under to allow their pectoral fins to rest in a more natural position. The whole point was to keep them alive and in good condition until they could be re-floated when the tide came in. I wish I could have stayed longer, many people had been there all day, and would be until dark.

It was an experience that I'll remember my whole life. There were so many feelings that changed from moment to moment as I worked and took in the situation. Mostly I felt pride or a sense of service from being there with my sleeves rolled up, but that alternated with frustration, why had the whales beached themselves? What's the point of all that effort if they're just going to do it again once they're re-floated (this was already the third time in two days)?

But the thing that struck me the most was a discussion I had with one of the Project Jonah co-coordinators. I told him they could buy a reasonable FPV setup for under $1000. He said that sounded really nice but as a volunteer organisation they couldn't afford it. He said that he paid for his own flights down from Auckland (about 1000km away) and when they need to hire a spotter plane to track the whales they paid for that from their own pockets. It's incredible to meet people that have such passion. I'd driven 200km to be there and spent most of a day, but I suddenly felt dwarfed standing beside him.

My point in writing this blog was to tell about the potential uses for a UAV and relate my day saving the whales. But I can't help myself inviting donations for Project Jonah. If any manufacturer(s), or individual(s) were prepared to donate a suitable airframe, and components then I'd donate my time to set it up and train them in its use. (I can't drop everything to attend a stranding so if it's going to work it will have to be Project Jonah owning and operating it). 

By way of a progress update it's a little over 24 hours since I was there. The whales have been floated, and are swimming in deep water but are still milling about not far from the danger zone. Only time will tell if they strand again or head out to sea. See the Project Jonah Facebook for progress updates and more info. https://www.facebook.com/projectjonah